What a delightful little cottage they let us use as our home in Tecpatan while we held daily medical clinics and held meetings for three weeks. Over the doorways were pretty plants and flowers. Fantastic art work adorned all the furniture. Joel was an artist. His home was a so pleasant to find rest in.
Early
in the morning we heard the busy, industrious Joel making his master
pieces.. As soon as his saw was turned on, there was a loud raucous bird call
that sounded like it was saying Cha-cha-laca, Cha-cha-laca, Cha-cha-laca. It was
louder than the saw. His pet bird seemed to be commenting on his work. He just
grinned and went about business as it was a daily routine. For us all the sounds
were strange and new.
I came to look forward to these early morning sounds. The carpentry reminded me of my own father who always built such lovely homes for us as I was growing up. Daddy worked so hard teaching all winter and building every summer. How I missed him now that he has gone to his rest till Jesus comes. Joel was adopted as my own daddy. He looked out for us like a father and grandpa.
We explored the back yard of where we stayed and found so many special birds of the jungle.
Another interesting
attraction was the Mayan Indian type stone oven. I watched Joel's wife as she
pulled whole wheat yeast raised bread from this great outdoor oven heated by
burning wood under the brick floor of the oven.
There were several different green parrots. Chickens scratched about in the dirt for their daily food. The back yard was decorated with so many pretty flowers in pots.
One day as I walked to
find Joel, I heard the Cha-cha-laca calls of alarm. I wondered what was stirring
up the bird. The carpenter's saw was quiet. Suddenly sharp claws were attacking
my head and drawing blood. Then the crazy bird was chewing up my legs. I had my
favorite long skirt on that had big red roses on it. This bird was determined to
attack anything red that came into his territory. He was a red hater. I ran for
cover and avoided this bird every day that I wore red.
It reminded me of how often in society, we upset someone just by what we are wearing or saying or doing. Out of nowhere the attacks on us can come with unrelenting fury.